The Canadian has made the fifth ascent of the 35-metre 5.15a on the Paradise Wall in Squamish. Getting there took him more than 60 days at the crag over four seasons.

Midnight Way is a link-up on the Paradise Wall in Paradise Valley near Squamish. It starts up Spirit Quest, 5.14d, then goes through the roughly V9 crux of Spectre del Norte. The finish follows the upper part of Killer Queen, 5.14b, where a sharp V9/10 boulder problem waits just below the chains. Connor Herson made the first ascent in summer 2024. Squamish local Ben Harnden repeated it in June 2025, Jonathan Siegrist followed that August and Mike Foley made the fourth ascent this June. Now Sonnie Trotter has added the fifth, and it is his first route of the grade.

It did not come quickly. Trotter says he spent more than 60 days at Paradise Wall over the past four seasons, and the send itself was a fight. "It was a serious battle (over 40 min on the face) and required a mini miracle, but I'm so glad I kept showing up," he said. "I think my 16-year-old self would be proud too."

Siegrist was full of praise after his own ascent. "Didn't think it could get any better than Spirit Quest, but this is it. Amazing crimping, technical testpiece," he said, though he added that he was unsure about the grade and saw it as soft 9a+.

Trotter has been one of Canada's leading climbers since the late 1990s and was the first climber ever featured in Gripped. His first ascents include Forever Expired, a 5.14d that is still unrepeated, and the trad lines The Path and Cobra Crack. He has also repeated Estado Crítico and Spirit Quest. In 2008 he made the second ascent of Rhapsody, Dave MacLeod's E11 at Dumbarton Rock. That route is having a busy autumn, with both Nemuel Feurle and Lara Neumeier topping out on 7 October.

Sources: Gripped, Gripped (June 2026), Climbing History

Photo: Stawamus Chief, Squamish, Stephenrees, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons